Brady Black
Brady is the only child of Isabella Toscano and the oldest child of John Black. As soon as he was old enough, he was sent away to private school and rarely came home. He finally returned home in 2000 on a college break and decided not to return to school. It soon became obvious that he resented his father hooking up with Marlena mere months after his mother's death, and also resented Marlena's attitude towards him. More than once Marlena has shown that even though she raised him from an infant, he was never as important to her as her biological daughter, Belle. Frequent arguments and fights have ensued, culminating when Marlena became convinced that Brady was trying to kill Belle. After Belle was injured in a train track accident, Marlena became obsessed with having Brady sent to prison for a crime she was certain he committed. She fired Roman Brady up about the incident, and was indirectly responsible for the shooting fiasco that paralyzed Brady from the waist down. Brady is getting the use of his legs back, but he is determined to get Marlena out of his father and half-sister's lives. He believes she's a bad influence (pointing to her failures with Eric and Sami), and has a lot of anger over the way she always chose her biological child over her husband's son. Marlena and Brady were finally able to straighten out their problems. Marlena apologized for the way she had treated him, and Brady apologized for the way he treated her. He even called her 'Mom' a few times, but it wasn't long before his real mother came back into his life. Around the time his good friend Chloe was getting sick, Isabella's ghost began appearing to him, and it was her guidance that kept Brady by Chloe's side through everything, including her frequent battles with Philip, who was insanely jealous of Chloe and Brady's friendship. Chloe finally broke up with Philip for good, and turned to Brady. The two soon realized they were deeply in love, but their future could be threatened by Chloe's leukemia. Although Chloe is currently in remission, Brady has always felt that he doesn't have much time with her. He was right...she got an offer to sing in Europe, and Brady decided that the only way to get her to go was to use tough love. When she left, it broke his heart. With Chloe gone, Brady moved back home with his grandfather. He soon involved himself in his grandfather's marriage to Nicole. Almost before he knew it, Brady found himself dreaming about Nicole instead of Chloe. But soon Brady saw through Nicole's sweetness act, and when Victor brought Chloe back to town for Christmas 2003, Brady knew that he had never let Chloe out of his heart. Chloe left Salem once again to further her career, and Brady turned his back on Nicole. Brady soon suffered a series of devastating losses though. First his grandfather was found dead in the bathtub, then Brady got news that Chloe had died in a horrible accident. Although initially he was devastated and couldn't forget about the loss of the woman he loved, he finally was able to open his heart up to Nicole. At the same time, he was thrilled to learn that Victor may be alive, and was part of the group that went to Melaswen to save the survivors. They were able to help some of the island captives, but unfortunately, Victor wasn't one of the survivors who made it back to Salem. Brady began moving on toward a future with Nicole, but after an accident when Chloe visited him in the hospital, he began to realize he just couldn't put his love for her behind him, even though he had committed himself to Nicole. He became suspicious of Nicole when he started to think that Chloe might be alive, and when he realized she was, he blamed Nicole for Chloe's 'death', even though Chloe insisted that it was all her idea. Brady turned his back on Nicole completely and began to work on convincing Chloe that they could indeed have a life together, despite her scars. He even began trying to help her find a doctor could remove her scars. The surgery was ultimately successful, and when Chloe raised her veil on her wedding day, her face was back to what it had been before. The two left Salem on their honeymoon immediately after the wedding, and were unable to make it back in time for John's funeral in 2007 due to weather conditions. Chloe returned to Salem in November of 2007 without Brady. After much speculation as to why the couple was not together, viewers learned that after meeting some of Chloe's friends (who happened to be drug dealers) Brady became addicted to drugs. He and Chloe fought constantly. One night, Brady was taken from their apartment in Austria. Chloe fled to Salem for safety. Months later, Chloe learned that Victor had actually ordered Brady's kidnapping in order to force Brady into rehab. When Chloe learned where Brady was, she rushed to be by his side. But, Brady told Chloe that he wanted a divorce. Their divorce was final on May 27th, 2008. Chloe remained in Salem and Brady remained in rehab. In November of 2008, Brady completed rehab and returned to Salem to reconcile with his friends and family. He made amends with Chloe and even congratulated her on her engagement to Lucas. He reconnected with Marlena and vowed to help her with John. And, Brady accepted a job from Victor as vice CEO of Titan where he worked with Philip. Brady's working relationship with his Philip was a strained one. Philip often complained that Victor favored Brady. But, Brady pointed out that Victor was being harder on Philip because he was his son and the actual heir to the Kiriakis Empire while Brady was further down the line to inherit everything. That seemed to appease Philip for the time being, but things were quickly strained again by vivacious Melanie Layton, who began working at Titan as a consultant. Upon his return, Brady also started a complicated relationship with Nicole. Originally just visiting her to wish her well, he found himself becoming her confidant. Brady was still a recovering drug addict and Nicole, who was recently pregnant, had to give up drinking. He offered to help her if she needed it and gave her his phone number. One night Nicole began experiencing terrible cramps. When she couldn't get hold of E.J., Nicole called Brady. He rushed her to the Fairway Urgent Care Clinic in Brookville. Nicole had a miscarriage. But, she couldn't risk telling E.J. because she feared that E.J. would leave her. Brady agreed to keep her secret, but urged her to tell E.J. the truth. Nicole did not take Brady's advice. She began to wear a pregnancy pad to fake the remainder of her pregnancy. Brady opposed her actions, but Nicole proclaimed it was just temporary until she could muster up the nerve to tell E.J. the truth. Brady was skeptical. Eventually, Nicole found a young, pregnant woman named Mia whose baby she wanted to illegally adopt and pass off as her own. Nicole asked Brady to pretend to be her fiancé so that Mia would go through with the adoption as she wouldn't unless she met the baby's prospective father. Brady adamantly refused to lie for her again. Nicole accused him of not supporting her thus creating a rift in their newly rekindled friendship. However, Brady had more to worry about than Nicole. Brady was determined to help his father regain his memory. After learning Charlotte proclaimed John's first hypnotherapy session was a bust and wrote him off as a lost cause, everyone became suspicion. Brady sprang into action and broke into Charlotte's office to review the recorded session. He was both shocked and appalled that Charlotte had lied to everyone as the recording proved John was in fact remembering his past. Brady e-mailed the file to Marlena then went to her penthouse to review it with her. At first, Marlena was worried that Brady might get into legal trouble for his misdeeds, but, when he demanded she looked at the file. She did and Marlena was also shocked by its contents. Brady immediately wanted confront Charlotte, but Marlena told him she would handle things. Knowing she could be in danger, Brady went to John and showed him the recording as well. John was also stunned by it and agreed that Marlena could be in trouble. He raced to the penthouse to help Marlena, but upon walking through the door Charlotte attacked him from behind with a hypodermic needle filled with a dose of muscle relaxant large enough to kill someone. Brady arrived a few minutes later to help, but there was little he could do. At the hospital it was revealed that John had been paralyzed from the neck down and needed to be transferred to a clinic in Lugano, Switzerland that specializes in cases like his. Brady's only reprieve was that the injection had helped John get his memory back. He was overjoyed when his beloved father finally remembered him. Although just reunited with his father, he had to say goodbye. John had to be flown to Lugano that night and Marlena was going with him. But, before they left, John and Marlena were remarried in the hospital with Brady there to experience the bittersweet moment and say goodbye to his father and Marlena. Brady stayed in Salem to continue his life. He realized that he had more than friendly feelings for Nicole. After helping her through her miscarriage, he tried to stop her from marrying E.J. and be with Brady instead. But, Nicole decided to marry E.J. Brady accepted her decision, but went to her wedding to see if she would actually go through with it. Furious that he had shown up, E.J. ordered some of the DiMera thugs to follow Brady from the church and beat him up. The beating was only the start of the war between the DiMeras and the Kiriakises. Soon, the feud was full blown, with Stefano and E.J. blaming Philip for Tony's accidental death and retaliated by ordering hits on Philip and kidnapping Stephanie. Brady knew that there was trouble and rather than play along, he went to Bo to get the police involved. This move angered Victor, and Victor threw Brady out of the family. But once Philip and Stephanie were safe, Victor tried to apologize. Brady soon met and began a relationship with Arianna Hernandez. The relationship helped Brady forget about Nicole and the DiMeras. Brady proposed to Arianna and the two were set to get married. When the truth about Nicole's baby switch came out, Brady testified on Nicole's behalf at her trial. This move hurt Arianna, and she and Brady hit multiple rough patches over Nicole. Despite how much he claimed to love Arianna, Brady could never cut Nicole out of his life. Nicole knew this and used it to her advantage to get Brady back. Nicole framed Arianna for the recent Salem muggings (which Hope really committed). Arianna tried to convince Brady that she was innocent. But, she noticed Brady's hesitation to believe her. Arianna broke up with Brady for good in the police station. While she was cleared of charges, Brady started a downward spiral. Nicole was there to comfort Brady and the two began dating. Brady also began drinking again - a move that worried his friends and family. Brady found out that Vivian had hatched a plot to burry Maggie alive. He was furious with Vivian for going after Maggie, but when Brady learned that Vivian had moved his mother's remains to a pet cemetery as part of the plot against Maggie, Brady snapped. He put Vivian in the sarcophagus and tortured her via camera and earpiece for weeks. When Vivian's assistant, Gus, finally rescued her, she sent out for revenge against the Kiriakis family. She bought the majority shares of Titan and took over the company. Meanwhile, Nicole struck a deal with E.J. where she would give up Brady in exchange for visitation privileges with Sydney. Brady needed an outlet for his anger. He retaliated against Vivian by setting up a fake overseas meeting. Brady paid the pilot of the Titan jet to throw Vivian out over the Pacific Ocean -- onto an island that the Kiriakis family owned. Vivian was out of the picture until Victor heeded Maggie's request and had Brady rescue Vivian. Her rescue was contingent on her signing the company back over to the Kiriakis family. However, instead of Victor, Brady made sure Vivian signed the company back over to Brady. Then, he settled in as the head of Titan. When Brady heard that Troy was the hit-and-run driver who killed Arianna, Brady was mad. But, when Brady learned that Troy was working for E.J., Brady blamed E.J. for her death. In retribution, he hired a goon to assault E.J. Once E.J. was hit, Brady stepped in and tried to finish the job. He beat E.J. almost to death, but Melanie stopped him. She told Brady to leave and started covering up the crime. Eventually, Dario, Daniel, Jennifer, Carly, Bo, Hope, Maggie, Victor, Nicole, and Taylor were all part of the cover-up. Brady maintained the position that if E.J. ever remembered the events on the night of the beating, Brady would not let anyone else take the fall for the crime. Brady eventually recovers from Arianna's death, and moves on to new business partner, Madison James, who made it clear that she wants to go slow.